Kingdom Investments
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth…but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven…” (Matthew 6:19a, 20a)
In our study of the Gospel of Matthew today, we begin a new section of the Sermon on the Mount. It is amazing how intensely practical this sermon is as we find the issues Jesus talked about two thousand years ago are still applicable to society today. Often we are told the Bible is an antique. It is terribly outdated and is not really useful in our high paced technologically savvy world of today. How far this is from the truth! People are still people; thousands of years of human history have not changed the nature of the human heart. For all of our advances in science, technology, and general knowledge, man has yet to be elevated from the selfishness of the Garden of Eden. Adam thought his way was better than God’s way; his way satisfied self much better than God’s directive.
Man’s selfishness bleeds over into every area of life. We are great promoters of self and this is especially true when we speak of material possessions. From the earliest of times, men have been trying to figure out how to get more and more stuff. Material possessions are the sign of success, or so we think. God has never looked at man’s earthly possessions as the measurement of his true worth. The person who is useful and of value to God is the one that invests in His Kingdom. This means that we take from our resources what is necessary for our needs and then use our abundance to increase God’s Kingdom. Selfishness begins to deteriorate when we bless others with the gift of life. As you give faithfully to your church, you cease to promote self and begin to promote others because the support of the gospel helps bring people into the Kingdom of God. When people are saved, they share in the wealth of God’s bountiful resources.
When Jesus said to lay up treasures in heaven rather than on earth, He was speaking of the great eternal rewards that are given for faithful service. Part of the reward is the faithfulness of stewardship. When we give our account to God, He will check our stewardship. What did we do with our provisions? Did we selfishly use it all on us or did we selflessly invest it in His Kingdom? This is the practicality of this section of the Sermon on the Mount. In tough economic times it is easy to hold back, to horde our resources as if it is our responsibility to take care of tomorrow. God already has tomorrow in hand. Our duty is to take care of what God says to do today. Consider now how you will answer His question: “What have you invested in My Kingdom?”
Pastor V. Mark Smith
He Hears Me When I Pray
“And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me…” (Genesis 16:14a)
It has been a wonderful blessing to have the opportunity to preach these past few weeks on the topic of prayer. Our method of preaching is to take the scriptures verse by verse and in the course of our study in Matthew, we progressed slowly and methodically until we came to this wonderful section in Matthew 6 where Jesus gave an astoundingly complex model prayer that contains every essential element necessary for prayers that glorify God.
A cursory reading of the prayer does not reveal the importance of these short sentences comprised of only sixty-six words. Prayer is most often consideration only of material needs, or worse yet, selfish wants. But when Jesus gave these instructions, He went far beyond the physical. Here we find the necessity of the new birth; here is teaching about God’s holiness; we find evangelism, repentance, sanctification, and best of all worship. Prayer is worship to God and the ending phrase of the prayer takes us back full circle to the original purpose: “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”
Prayer begins with God and ends with God. “Our Father which art in heaven…thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory.” If only we would live, and move, and have our being in those first and last phrases! Never would we have to argue again for God’s sovereign unconditional election, His purposeful particular redemption, His enabling efficacious grace, and His power of preservation of those who were once helpless, undeserving, incapacitated, dead sinners now made alive by the regenerating operation of His Holy Spirit. There is no room from beginning to end of the Lord’s Prayer for the assertion of my worthiness and my right to make demands of God. Even when Jesus allowed room for personal petitions, He began with “Give us.” This is acknowledgment that God alone is able to provide and anything He should choose to “give” comes only from His benevolent heart of mercy, love, and grace. The exposition of the Lord’s Prayer brings us face to face with God’s demand to be worshipped and His right to expect it. The apostle Paul said rightly “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (1 Tim. 1:17).
So, we come to the end of the Lord’s Prayer bowing to God’s majesty, praising His Holy name, and ever grateful that He should care for us and allow us the privilege of His company. If you are His child by grace through faith, the thought “Thou God seest me; God hears me!” should so astound your sensibilities that you can’t help but cry “Guilty, vile, and helpless we; Spotless Lamb of God was He; ‘Full atonement!’ can it be? Hallelujah! What a Savior!”
Pastor V. Mark Smith
To God Be the Glory!
Today I am away from the pulpit after attending the Shepherd’s Conference in Sun Valley, California. I have very much enjoyed the opportunity to hear some good solid preaching from God’s word and am blessed to know there are still men around the country that believe God is sovereign in all His works and all glory should go to Him for the salvation of souls. I am also pleased to report that in this conference God is continually exalted so that we come away with a great reverential fear of Him and truly respect how we must bow to His majesty. Unlike many conferences I have attended, this is not about personalities. There are no platform squatters here!
Throughout my Christian life, the glory of God has been pressed down deeply into my soul. I never want to fail in my preaching to stand in obscurity behind the cross and let all the glory shine on the Saviour. I am not interested in techniques and marketing ploys to fill the church. I am not interested in entertainment which is falsely substituted for and called worship. I am not interested in theology that says the sinner must meet God half way and through man’s cooperation God is given permission to save him. I am only interested in the Holy Spirit that conquers man’s resistance to the gospel; a Spirit that regenerates and quickens to life enabling the sinner to trust Christ. I want to preach a Saviour that never failed to accomplish everything He intended; a Redeemer who really does redeem; a Substitute who really does infallibly secure salvation for those He intended to sacrifice Himself for. I want to preach the Christ that demands repentance from sin and submission to His Lordship.
This view of God is biblical and should be so fundamental to our teachings that we wouldn’t believe anyone could possibly teach otherwise. These are foundational teachings that stretch back to Jesus and the apostles and were boldly proclaimed by our Baptist forefathers. And yet Baptists today that still preach these doctrines are so few and far between that a diligent search must be launched to discover where they may be. Thus you have the reason why you find me at the Shepherd’s Conference instead of in conferences held by most fundamental Baptists.
Our Baptist brethren seriously need to be recalled to these essential doctrines of the faith. There needs to be recovery of a soteriology that is God centered instead of man centered. It is horribly shameful that the landscape must be scoured to find someone who still preaches the old gospel truth, and when it is discovered the label too often is something other than Baptist. If we can get our eschatology right and our ecclesiology right, why must we fail in our soteriology? It is way past time to get the central focus of our purpose back on track. We must preach salvation to the glory of God!
Pastor V. Mark Smith